In contrast to her first two albums which were entirely acoustic with occasional use of her distinctive mouthbow, parts of Little Wheel Spin and Spin added electric guitar by Bruce Langhorne and string arrangements by Felix Pappalardi, or feature fellow Native American performer Patrick Sky on guitar with Sainte-Marie. This served to pave the way for Sainte-Marie's stylistic experiments on her remaining Vanguard albums, where she covered territory ranging from country to rock to experimental music.